FEC Levies $210K Fine on N.J. Lawmaker

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, June 12, 2003

The Federal Election Commission has assessed a $210,000 civil penalty in a settlement with New Jersey Rep. Mike Ferguson, who used money from his parents to finance his 2000 campaign.

Ferguson, a Republican in his second term, agreed to pay the penalty by June 30. As of March 31, he had $278,000 in his campaign treasury.

The FEC concluded that Thomas and Roberta Ferguson made $525,000 in excessive contributions to their son's campaign, but the agreement between the FEC and the lawmaker also said that Ferguson, his parents and his campaign did not break campaign finance laws "knowingly and willfully."

Ferguson announced the settlement Friday, saying he believes he did nothing wrong but wanted to avoid a long court battle with the FEC.

"I'm completely confident that we are on sound legal footing here, that we would win this in court," Ferguson said. "But that means months or years more of litigation, and it means legal fees that would probably end up surpassing the fine amount."

In winning election to an open seat in 2000, Ferguson was his own biggest financial backer, lending his campaign about one-third of the $2.25 million it spent. He ended his campaign with a $760,000 debt to himself.

During the campaign, New Jersey's Democratic organization complained to the FEC that Ferguson had made loans illegally, using money received from his parents. Federal law at the time limited contributions from individuals _ even parents _ to $1,000 per campaign.

Ferguson acknowledged that some of the money he put into the campaign came from his parents, but he said they gave it to him as a gift for estate-planning purposes, not as a campaign donation in disguise.

Ferguson's parents disbursed money to all four of their children from an irrevocable trust in 2000. Thomas Ferguson founded one of the world's leading health communications companies, now known as CommonHealth USA.

The election commission approved the settlement by a vote of 4-2. The two dissenters, Michael Toner and Bradley Smith, said the $210,000 penalty "is grossly disproportionate to the offense."

The $210,000 civil penalty is the sixth largest assessed by the FEC since 1980, according to the commission's Web site. Only one larger fine involved a candidate for Congress: Republican Grant Lally of New York agreed in 1998 to pay a $280,000 fine for illegally accepting campaign money from his family and then lying about it.